Excess Inventory and IPI Score: Complete Breakdown

Amazon defines excess inventory as FBA units where you have more than 90 days of supply based on your recent sales velocity. Specifically, if your last 90 days of sales were 30 units, and you currently have 100 units in FBA, you have approximately 300 days of supply — 210 days worth of units are categorized as excess. Excess inventory has two direct negative effects: it lowers your IPI score (the excess inventory metric is one of the four key factors), and it incurs additional storage fees (long-term storage fees start at 181 days). The most effective ways to reduce excess inventory in descending order of speed: 1) Lightning deals — fastest way to move inventory, but requires application and Amazon approval. 2) Coupons — you can create these yourself immediately and they run within 24 hours. A 15-20% coupon on an excess ASIN typically meaningfully improves its 30-day velocity. 3) Price reduction — simply lowering the price is the bluntest tool but often effective for price-sensitive categories. 4) FBA liquidation — if the product is not worth saving, Amazon's liquidation program removes it from your storage count immediately. 5) Removal orders — takes 7-21 days to process but permanently removes the units from your inventory. The IPI benefit from reducing excess inventory appears in your weekly score update.